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Tuesday, July 08, 2014

Commuter Bus Operator Can't Sustain Bus Service Between Downtown Indy and Carmel And Fishers Without More Subsidies

It should give pause to the crack public transit planners who insist that an expanded metropolitan mass transit bus service for the Indianapolis metropolitan area is just what the doctor ordered, but I doubt this is how they will interpret this news. Miller Transportation has been providing daily bus service for three years now for commuters living in Carmel and Fishers to downtown Indy for $5 per one-way trip, which works out to about $200 a month for daily commuting. That's not a bad fare for luxury coaches furnished with WiFi and restrooms. And federal tax law permits the commuters to set aside up to $130 a month in pre-tax earnings for the cost of using mass transit. There are three morning pick-up times between 6:30 a.m. and 7:45 a.m., and three return times between 4:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. The commute time is 45 minutes each way. The Louisville-based transportation company says it can't collect enough fares daily to sustain the two routes. Miller says it only needs to bring in about $550 a day to operate one bus making a twice-daily route. There are currently about 100 riders taking advantage of the Fishers route daily. Millers says there would be a significant drop-off in riders if it raised its fares. Hence, it wants a subsidy to continue the express bus service.

I actually would rather provide a local subsidy to Miller to operate the express bus service than raise local income taxes and build a boondoggle of a regional mass transit system that will cost much more per rider to support. The bus service is already subsidized through the tax breaks given to the commuters on their federal income tax.

It is my understanding from all the literature on the subject that no mass transit system has ever paid for itself and that includes the NY subway system AND the Bay Area BART system. High density urban areas cannot make their transport systems self-sufficient so why on earth would any clear headed individual hold the notion low density Indianapolis will be any different?

Mass/rapid transit construction and maintenance will never actually "end"... it is the ideal long-running crony payoff to politically connected contractors and management companies... an endeavor that will forever require taxpayer funding and political involvement.

See, folks...that's how it starts.First, they get people to go along, then all of a sudden, they have to "raise the rates," "raise the taxes," "reduce the services," etc. etc. etc.And the lo-fo's just sit there, nodding their heads.

Years ago, when I was working in state government in Indiana, I had a friend who led the Urban Mass Transit Administration who told me that at UMTA, they had an informal rule of thumb about the feasibility of mass transit in different cities. It had to do with the cost of downtown parking in the urban center -- if you could park there for under $10, mass transit was never going to work/be viable/or be anything but a drain on services. Indy is a perfect example of why that rule of thumb holds true today -- you can park in the center of the city for $2 at the Circle Center Mall. Hoosiers will not give up their cars until the cost of parking becomes onerous. Then, $10 round trip bus rides may have a chance to succeed

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